Electronic Arts recently revealed a list of multiplayer servers that it will soon be shutting down for some of its older game titles. Among those listed is The Sims 2, which will see the end of multiplayer servers for Mac and Windows PCs on January 14. The Sims 2 website will also be closed on the same date.

The decisions to retire older EA games are never easy. The development teams and operational staff pour their hearts into these games almost as much as the customers playing them and it is hard to see one retired. But as games get replaced with newer titles, the number of players still enjoying the older games dwindles to a level -- fewer than 1% of all peak online players across all EA titles -- where itís no longer feasible to continue the behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping these games up and running. We would rather our hard-working engineering and IT staff focus on keeping a positive experience for the other 99% of customers playing our more popular games. We hope you have gotten many hours of enjoyment out of the games and we appreciate your ongoing patronage.